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I’m starting to wonder if it might not be time for the grownups to begin discussing the real fears of the Republican base.

A couple of years ago Democracy Corps did a thorough bit of research into the psycho-graphics at the heart of the Republican party that bears looking at. Fear stands out as the single most significant motivating impulse. But I would contend that most of the fears being articulated by these people are bullshit. They name them as stand-ins for the real underlying fears. Psychologists (and talented salespeople) encounter and recognize this all the time. When asked to name them, people motivated by deep fears often offer something else. Something they feel is more acceptable or better reflects their self-identity. Psychologists work to cut through these smoke screens in order to help their patients cope effectively and live a fuller life. Good sales people do it in order to overcome objections and close.

Fake Fear: Firearms Regulation. Real Fears: Loss of traditional cultural and social constructs for establishing masculinity, loss of social and economic independence.

Just a few for starters. Not exhaustive. No doubt inaccurate. Just an idea for a conversation starter. I think it’s time. The narrative of fear and hate defining Republican politics needs to be countered effectively. I think the most effective way is going to be the way that directly confronts the underlying fears that grip these people. After all, loathsome as so many of them are, they are our fellow citizens and they need our help.

In the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., nearly three in four Americans think mass shootings and other random acts of violence have become a fixture of American life, the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found.

The anxiety is pronounced enough that roughly a third of adults worry they or someone they love will be the victim of gun violence and 29% fear they will be the victim of a terrorist attack, roughly equivalent to the days right after the Sept. 11 attacks.

@3,“Great idea. How are you going to keep BOOB and the LOON from trashing any such discussion?” Thanks for the response. Just ignore ’em. In the exceptionally unlikely event that they have anything constructive to contribute, use it. They need our help too. They are gripped by seemingly impenetrable fears. Underneath it all, some of those fears may be justified. Some that aren’t, still need to be addressed. We aren’t doing ourselves or them any good by wasting time debating the fake fears.

This blog needs to provide a way for its readers to block the babbling jackass’s hate-filled, CAP-locked screeds in these comment threads. We shouldn’t have to even scroll past that shit. If you’re not going to ban the SOB, then give your readers the means to block his comments.

Fake Fear: Firearms Regulation. Real Fears: Loss of traditional cultural and social constructs for establishing masculinity, loss of social and economic independence.

Response: Like cars, guns are cool. They have a personality all their own. They give you a way to express something about yourself. All that’s cool in a uniquely American way. But just like cars, there’s nothing wrong with having a few simple, straightforward, sensible regulations to help keep us all a little bit more safe, and allow more of us to enjoy them safely. As with cars, nothing will ever be perfect. We won’t eliminate fatalities and we won’t try. But we can always make things safer without taking away anyone’s freedom to be who they want to be. We shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. In a hundred years cars have come to define huge parts of our culture. In that time we’ve managed to make cars and roads vastly safer for all Americans while increasing every American’s freedom to own and enjoy cars in our lives. There’s no good reason to believe we can’t deal with guns the same way, making us all safer while expanding and enhancing Americans use and enjoyment of guns. Approach it this way, and the gun industry gets on board. And the NRA goes back to representing gun owners instead of gun makers.

I think I’m discerning something about Trump supporters that, up until now, I’ve been unable to put my finger on. It looks for all the world to me that they realize the Republican brand is a loser and a failure on every level. But they, by reason of insanity, could never vote for a Democrat. They know anti-abortion, anti-science, anti-everybody but themselves won’t cut it without a winning personality that isn’t beholden to the establishment losers. If Trump isn’t the nominee, I predict they’ll sit out the election.

@10, I don’t really think it’s fair to blame it all on insanity. At bottom, they have real political differences with many Democrats, even to the extent that our candidates really represent us any better than theirs do. So we can’t really afford to dismiss this all as just insanity. If we want a government that is capable of doing its work, we have to begin to address some of those political differences. I’m not suggesting for a moment that we roll back civil rights, cave to bigotry and sexism, or abandon social justice. But we have to stop agreeing to debate those important principles on false terms.

For example, terrorism is scary. That’s a fact. We don’t do ourselves any good by pretending that people don’t have a right and a justification to be afraid of random terrorist attacks here in the U.S. And it does have something to do with Islam. That’s also true. Some Islamic states support terrorism and terrorist groups. Some of those states are ruled by regimes that we do good business with every day. They are immensely corrupt regimes, not in the least bit driven by any religious ideology. But they support ideologically driven terrorism as an expedient to stabilize domestic Islamic extremism. And we help them do it. So we’re wasting our time debating the morality of proposals to embark on a religious conflict with 2.5 billion Muslims. It won’t do any good. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t want to do something about Islamic terrorism. It’s not about religion. It’s about international oil corruption. Always has been.

On the humorous side of things, ol’ Bob Corker has been hiding several millions, probably even in the tens of millions (he’s one of the wealthiest members of the Senate) in assets and income.

And of course, not paying taxes on any of it.

Gee. Tsk tsk tsk.

So, lets think about this for a minute. Suppose that this wasn’t an “oversight”. Just suppose, and it certainly looks like this is the real situation, that he has been using hidden bank accounts, dummy corporations and ghost assets to hide the fact that he’s

I won’t claim it’s all insanity, but you have to admit that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is crazy. Red states are at the bottom of every good economic indicator and at the top of every bad quality of life indicator. They don’t improve. Who wants to live in Alabama or Mississippi? Kansas? Oklahoma? A Republican is currently destroying education in Illinois and ruining economic growth as well. But they keep voting for these incompetent jokers. As far as terrorism is concerned, why do things the way the neocons want when they are the jokers that created the mess we’re in?

@17, Right now we’ve got a Death Cult® in the House of Representatives numbering about 25. As bad as things may be, they could get a lot worse before they get better. What I’m saying is that on the present course, Democrats stand to maintain control of the Executive branch, pick up some House seats in blue states (why the fuck is Dave Reichert not retired yet?). But they won’t gain control of the House. And they won’t get a cloture majority in the Senate if they get a majority at all. Best case. But at the same time the Death Cult® will continue to grow. At some point (probably sooner rather than later) Ryan won’t be good enough for them. Meanwhile we can’t continue to run the entire fucking government on Executive Orders. And the Senate’s influence in the House will continue to decline. If we want a government that can get shit done, we have to start addressing some of their shit on terms a tiny bit more conciliatory than telling them they’re all fucked in the head.

“Donald Trump has hit a new milestone in national polling, garnering 41% of the Republican vote in a new national poll. … In second was the rising Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, at 14%; followed by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, at 10%. Ben Carson was at 9%, down 9 points from October, and all other candidates were in the low single digits.”

@20 You don’t change them. They are lost. You change those that seek common sense and what works. You seek those that sit out elections out of apathy and convince them they matter and what they hope and dream matters and only voting in every election can bring a better future.

@20, we move the conversation forward by addressing those fears to them. For example, they name a global religion of 1.5 billion as “the source” of terrorism, which they are absolutely justified in fearing. But as a “source” for terrorism that isn’t credible. And debating Islam as “the source” of global terrorism is a waste of our time and theirs. So ask yourself why do they do this? Perhaps it is because as Christians they have a very deep fear that their religion is losing it’s privileged place in our culture and our society. As the world’s fastest growing religion, Islam is projected to surpass Christianity by the end of this century. In the United States it is projected to become the second largest religion by 2050. The numbers can be debated. But what is clear is that the influence of Islam on culture and society, when compared to the influences of other religions, is likely to grow very rapidly. As this happens the influence of other religions will decline proportionately. Conservative Christians are probably deeply afraid of this. That fear should be addressed directly by using every opportunity to demonstrate how true pluralism supports freedom for everyone. Key would be emphasizing freedom, which is important to conservative Christians. Think about how progress with same sex marriage has been made. Rapid progress has been made by making more Americans familiar with same sex couples and letting them see that whatever differences there are between same sex and opposite sex couples, they are essentially trivial. What isn’t trivial is guaranteeing freedom for everyone. While it’s true that very conservative Christians remain deeply concerned about same sex marriage, the legal future of same sex marriage is no longer in any doubt. And that’s mostly because the vast majority of Americans are no longer afraid.

@21, we have to change them. We’re talking about a huge number of our fellow citizens. They form significant majorities in a large number of Congressional Districts. If their anger and fear, however irrational and misplaced, remain marginalized they will continue to send assholes to Congress to break the government. My greatest worry is that powerful forces in our society will not tolerate much more of that or for much longer. Big business needs a government that works, sometimes more than the rest of us do. Under such circumstances, changes might come about to enable streamlining of legislation opposed by stubborn minorities. It could be as easy to sell such changes as it was to sell us on the surveillance state after 9/11. But the result might be a decline in effective democracy.

while i feel he should be ignored, and personally wish for a way to block his posts, i think we’re getting somewhere on this thread. his “shitting on it versus real commentary” ratio is 3-to-28. way down from usual, so we’re doing ok.

but, i’m going to feed the troll none-the-less. sorry.

it’s easy – especially since his shits amount to::

@9 – “i’m a victim.” (also, what’s telling? roger and almost all the other adults here adopted a wait and see attitude, so. . . wtf are you on about piddles?)

@25 – “i agree with roger” (despite screaming for months about this and not knowing what i [piddles] was saying, i [piddles] now see that roger was right to let the u.s. military both protect and charge one of their own as they see fit. i [piddles] am sorry.)

@26 – i won’t put words in his mouth on this one. a very complicated incident (among others) that brought a new scrutiny to police tactics when dealing with the public and especially minorities. but, if piddles were actually a black man in america today than i think a new debate on persecution, prosecution & incarceration would be welcome to some one who cares about his fellow americans.

– Hands Up Don’t shoot starts. – The gentle giant was first shot in the chest. – Then the gentle giant was first shot in the back. – I wasn’t close enough to know if the second shot hit Mike. – Oh Mike wasn’t hit in the back after all. – Michael Brown didn’t charge the officer even though a 20 foot blood trail toward the officer is apparent!

So another argument just like the chosen name – down the toilet drain! Just like the lies of Dorian Johnson. God assisted you in choosing that HA DUMMOCRETIN name.

Second fart: if piddles were actually a black man in america

Puddy loves how ‘white privileged HA DUMMOCRETINS’ “talk” about minority issues. Like you fools actually know what it is like to be a black man in northern libtard states where subtle libtard racism abounds daily! Like you fools know what it is like to live on the other side of the tracks. Like you fools know what it is like to be called a nigger from died in the wool DUMMOCRETINS when they get provoked.

Puddy relied on his platoon mates testimony in the public sphere. Puddy placed their testimony from multiple sources multiple times on HA DUMMOCRETINS. What down the toilet drain fails to comprehend is how Roger senile will quickly convict any conservative from the first Daily Kooks Markook Moulitsas report, like that San Bernadino shooting December 2nd. Remember Karkook Moulitsas blamed conservatives before the dead bodies assumed room temperature.

That’s how the senile mind works… always spiraling down to entropy! Most people realize it’s really senility!

Puddy is glad to see the Army stand up to their well known principles and hold that court martial trial. Obummer’s sadministration pressure had no effect! Seeing everything through that DUMMOCRETIN diseased mind has fully affected your useless commentary here down the toilet drain!

but also, nothing you posted takes away from the complicated chain of events. i didn’t say anything other than that – and my suggestion that you have empathy for your fellow human beings really pissed you off didn’t it?

–” Well played there fella! Indict your own peeps!”

um, know. i am not a police officer.

but, you list 7 plus departments that aren’t to be trusted? I AGREE!

white privileged talk? you don’t know me!

and if you spit that (supposed white vs. supposed black) shit at me again than we’ll all know that it is a color barrier that you crave to exploit.

Puddy not white so there goes that issue! Just like all those Mike Rowe Agreshuns you libtards scream about.

Mike Rowe Agreshuns are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership

@40, Its funny, isn’t it? How things are different in different places? Particularly when those places are so seldom reflected in mass media culture. Take for instance where I live: here the circumstance of government dependence is concentrated almost entirely among whites. And yet the cultural notion of white racial exceptionalism is probably stronger here than in a metropolitan area like Seattle.

@48, They may have a point. But they may also be blaming the wrong people. Less educated, blue collar conservatives are in big trouble economically. Four decades of policy supported by both parties have exported family wage jobs, gutted educational programs, and crippled collective bargaining rights.

@13 Hope you use some of your savings to save a tree in the rain forest or to plant a tree. Take care you give only to reputable organizations that will use most of your holiday donations for the cause you are supporting.

@24 Umm sorry my inner Geek is coming out. Obviously this actress has never groked Starwars where shite is arguably as evil as black after all the Storm Troopers are all in white. Arguable it’s the corruption of evil that is represented as black. Perhaps it’s allegorical for the audience. Or as a couple of film critics said it’s really a western in space.

@25 Actually the real story is a commanding general is ignoring good advice from other officers who are telling him if you take this to a court martial there a good the army will loose, and Bergdahl will walk. Maybe we have grounds to do an article 15, but the time probably passed on that. The army should have as quickly as possible gotten him out the door though that would mean he would qualify for VA benefits. Could be some of this is about back pay? VA benefits? That some in the army want to deprive an enlisted man from benefits. And if the Army gets a conviction if it’s ever proven the reasons the General who did this was for political reasons then Bergdahl wins on appeal as the Army will fight tooth and nail Bergdahl’s attorneys gong down that road especially if it’s the truth. Then again the old man may find himself being questioned at the upcoming trial or at the retrial. And just how is all this going to cost the taxpayer?

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